Dr. Kenneth Burden stands in front stained-glass windows that were made in memory of his late wife, Clarita, in the entryway at the Chehalis Seventh Day Adventist church on Tuesday morning. The windows were made by Marcy Anholt.
A picture of Clarita Burden sits on a stand alongside stained-glass windows made in her memory at the Chehalis Seventh Day Adventist Church.
A plaque dedicated to Clarita Burden sits below the stained-glass windows made in her memory at the Chehalis Seventh Day Adventist Church. The windows were made by Marcy Anholt.
Dr. Kenneth Burden stands alongside stained-glass windows that was created in memory of his late wife, Clarita, pictured to the right, in the entryway at the Chehalis Seventh Day Adventist church on Tuesday morning. Clarita Burden was the organ player at the church for over 40 years.
Clarita Burden was a musician who dedicated her life to making music for God.
Burden was the in-house organist at the Chehalis Seventh-Day Adventist Church for decades prior to her death in 2013, and it was a position that she took great pride in.
“My wife was our church organist for 50 years,” said Dr. Kenneth Burden.
He noted that he and Clarita moved to Chehalis in 1973, but that she had served as the organist at their previous stops in Nebraska and Puerto Rico as well.
Music was Clarita’s passion.
Clarita Burden held master’s degrees in music performance and music education. She taught lessons for many instruments over the years and, before her death, she was inducted into the Washington State Music Teachers Hall of Fame.
After Clarita’s death, there was a glaring void in the ambiance of the church, so Kenneth Burden saw to it that his wife’s memory was honored in the most appropriate way he could think of — By letting a little light shine in.
With the help of local artist Marcy Anholt, Burden commissioned a stained glass window in honor of Clarita that now welcomes visitors to the Chehalis Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
Anholt has been making stained glass art for 37 years. The church in Chehalis is the 10th church across the nation that she has outfitted with her work.
The large window in the foyer of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church is a patchwork of vibrant colors and stirring imagery, including a depiction of Handel’s beloved organ pipes and the unfurling notes of “Handel’s Messiah.”
“Those are for Clarita,” explained Anholt.
Although Anholt has worked on larger projects, such as a church with 56 large windows wrapping around its exterior, her work for the Burdens was highly personalized and sentimental in nature.
“Every one is completely different because I do what the customer wants to do. I take their ideas and make them happen,” said Anholt.
Burden first contacted Anholt about the project last November, and it took about four months from the design stage to completed windows.
Anholt even made sure to match the eaves of the windows depicted in the stained glass to the actual windows of the church in order to establish a sense of place.
“I live one block away so installation was easy,” said Anholt, who noted that her husband helped with the installation process.
Burden was happy to find such a skilled artist so close to home.
“I was looking at getting stained glass done and I didn’t know we had an expert locally,” said Burden.
Now that the work is done and light is free to filter in through the stained glass panels, Burden is happy that others will have a reason to remember his music-making wife.
“I was very pleased with it,” said Burden. “We had a wonderful 63 years together.”
